Our Mission
Our philosophy has always been to promote volleyball at the widest levels possible and to encourage participation and involvement as well as competition. To that end, we have developed a large number of teams and organized many leagues and tournaments, both locally and throughout southwestern Ontario. Our future lies in our youth and by giving as many players as possible a chance to develop, we will ensure a bright future for volleyball in the Region of Waterloo.
Club History
The Waterloo Volleyball Club, formed in 1978, evolved from a co-ed intramural team at the University of Waterloo during the mid-1970s and subsequently went on to build a base in the Kitchener City leagues.
In 1980 the Club first entered the Ontario Volleyball Association with a men’s and women’s Senior A team. The teams saw many successes with the women winning their first provincial gold medal in 1983 and the men winning bronze in 1984 and silver in 1985. Expansion to include Senior B and Intermediate teams occurred in the mid-80s. The first youth team was formed in 1983 – a midget girls team (16U) coached by Kristi Ellenton. In 1984 Mike Paull started a bantam girls team (14U) and in 1985 Terry Hinschberger brought the K-W Queens midget team over to join the Club. Boys teams soon followed. The men’s and boys’ teams were called Giants; the women’s adult teams were called Kangas and Roos and the youth girls teams were renamed TIGERS. By 1991 there were six adult and five youth teams; by 1995 there were 4 adult and 8 youth teams. All of the youth teams are now called Tigers. The last adult team competed in Men’s A in 1999 and was coached by John Nelson. They played in the very last OVA match in Ontario to use the old 15-point scoring system – a 2/3 match which took over two hours to play! The Club today is known as the Waterloo TIGERS Volleyball Club and is in its 38th year. Waterloo Volleyball Club was the largest Club in Ontario for 10 years and peaked in 2006-07 with 20 youth teams. We have had many successes and were one of the most dominant clubs in the province from 1996 to 2004 during the Sarah Pavan era. Sarah, who played at Nebraska, has won every possible award in the NCAA and is, without a doubt, the finest player ever to be developed in Canada.
Meet the Executives
TIGERS Club Executive
| John D. Nelson | Club President and Founder |
| Carolyn Nelson | Secretary/Treasurer |
Carolyn is the lady who is responsible for running the show, acting as the face of the club along with John, and ensuring everything behind the scenes flows smoothly.
We have added Program Heads to the Executive team. Please see the Contact Us page for details and to contact us for more information about the club, our programs, or our teams.